Winter Driving Close-Call: Awesome DSC/TCS! Incredible Tires!
 

Early last Tuesday morning I was driving back to Boston from Killington. It had been snowing all weekend, and there was still some light snow coming down that morning too. So, highways 4 and 89 all had half an inch of slippery/slushy/icy/wintry mix on them. Not the greatest of driving conditions.

As a snow-driving a novice, and having had my RX-8 for all of a month and a half, I was *very* nervous about how I would be getting home (Note: I do have Pirelli SottoZeros on my girl). I started out cautiously going about 40 mph, but soon the onboard electronics had me going comfortably at 60+ along wintry, windy mountain roads. I was passing Hummer H2s, Subaru Outbacks, Ford Explorers, Cadillac Escalades, you name it! (pwned an H2 and a Navigator last week! yeah! :rolleyes: ) I'm sure they had quite the site: a brilliant black RWD sports car with a ski rack and a snowboard passing their AWD monsters on the left on a snowy mountain road :D. She got me so comfortable with her handling in the snow so quickly...

...that I got a little too confident for my own good...

...On my way back on highway 89, I was going way too fast for the conditions (no flames please, I learn from my mistakes), probably ~70mph, passing every single car on the road. Zipping along, I was catching up with a big rig in the left lane that wasn't even trying to pass a truck a little farther ahead on the right. I got in the right lane to try to pass the slow rig (yeah, I know, don't even say it) when the rig decides to start merging into my lane! I drift to the right a little to give the bastard some more room but the back end breaks loose a little due to the high speed and thicker snow build up on the shoulder (:eek: OH BLEEPIN' BLEEPITY BLEEP BLEEP!!!!).

Instinctively I steer left into the slide, over-recover, steer to the right, doing all I can to keep the car going in a straight line and to the left to follow the bend in the road...

...and she magically stabilizes and gets her footing back! I'm definitely no pro drifter, nor have I ever taken any advanced accident avoidance driver training classes, but somehow I turned a very dangerous 70mph traction-loss situation into a "Thank DSC/TCS I'm alive!!!" scenario. Props to the incredible traction control systems in this car, which, when combined with four great snow tires (got me through the 2.5' of snow during the January blizzard), makes for a great snow-handling vehicle.

Whoever says the RX-8 shouldn't be driven in the winter, obviously never has.

Thanks Halle for saving me from my (at times stupid) actions!

Five stars to the Pirelli Sottozeros (which the Italian Police Department slaps onto its Lamborghini AWD Gallardo for winter driving). I'd definitely buy them again, especially for the great price at TireRack.

-P23

Your thread is filled with many opportunities for flaming, which I will leave for other.

My only question is what has this experience taught you?

always buy Pirelli Sottozeros... :D

Definitely, I'll stick with the Pirellis for as many seasons as they last ;). Lessons learned from this board include not having to report to anybody.

There are five kinds of people in this world:

1) Those who will listen to advice just because.
2) Those who will listen after seriously considering a piece of advice.
3) Those who will have a close call and then start heeding that advice.
4) Those who will screw up completely once or more times, and then start behaving differently.
5) And then there are those who will screw up over and over...
-a) ...because they are too stupid to know any better
-b) ...because they've looked at the balance of the risk/reward ratio and know that the rewards far outweigh the risks

I've gotten through life successfully so far because I know when to be what kind of person. I provide the above story not for giving people the opportunity to flame me, but rather as advice to help other people make an informed decision about what kinds of tires to purchase, performance with the Pirelli Sottozeros, the importance of keeping DSC/TCS on in adverse conditions, and as a segue to a story about the killer powder up at Killington Mountain over President's Day Weekend... :D

-P23

Whew....glad you survived that one :)

Hey, do you have any pics with your car w/ roof rack and snowboards? I'd like to see...I've never seen that before with an 8. Thinking about doing it with mine...

my god you should not be going more than 40 if there is any snow on the roads and the rx8 isnt that good in the snow . i have driven it in the snow and i couldnt get it up my driveway where there is a very slight incline. it isnt horrible when going on flat surfaces in the snow but if you come to small hill you wont go anyware

IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE TIRES. PERIOD. I don't know how many times people have to say this.

I drive under VERY wintry conditions here in Norway,but during winter I use Nokian Hakkapelitta 225/45R17 94 R XL.

From Nokian brochure:

Nokian Tyres’ latest winter product is the Nordic friction tyre Nokian
Hakkapeliitta RSi. An important safety asset in winter driving in the North, the
tyre copes easily and securely with demanding and changeable conditions.
One of the best features of the new friction tyre in the R speed category (170
km/h) is its excellent winter properties; the stable tyre holds its grip during
both braking and accelerating on snowy, slushy, icy or wet roads.
The new friction tyre has been designed for drivers in the Nordic countries,
Russia and North America.

I think the tyre handles excellent on my 8,but it is of course useless in summer..

I don't think there is anyone among us who has not made an error in judgement at some time while driving. The key is learning from and not repeating our mistakes. So until portero23 writes in that the same thing happened again, no flames. Thanks for sharing in the hope that someone else could learn from your experience.




In another thread, I think you said you still have OEMs, which have been acknowledged again and again (and again) as being worse than bad in snow. All-seasons are better, but snow tires are the best. I think portero23 had the right tires for the conditions.

well i dont care what kind of tires i had i wouldnt go more than 40 if it was snowing but hey to each his own

Does anyone mind if I say it just one more time?:)

Scene: my second test drive. Potenza RE040s, bone-dry pavement at just above freezing. Until the tires were warmed up, I was breaking contact just starting up! (must be all that low-end torque...) Had a chat with the dealer about getting something else installed before delivery.

Fast forward to today, on Continental TS790s. Pittsburgh doesn't get mountains of snow, but we do get a lot of hovering-around-freezing wet slop mixed in with it. I have yet to have any trouble starting, stopping, turning, or doing anything else that involves not crashing. Of course, that's following normal winter driving practices, slow control inputs, that sort of thing. But I do get the impression that with the right tires in combination with all the automated control, I'd have to go to some effort to get in trouble. My OEM tires are patiently waiting for spring to come.